Thursday, December 20, 2012

Sad. Very Sad.

Our military academy cadets and midshipmen should be exemplars of decorum, physical aptitude, intelligence, and integrity; they should represent the best of their generation.  How, then, have they devolved to this:
Reported sexual assaults at the nation's three military academies jumped by 23 percent overall this year, but the data signaled a continued reluctance by victims to seek criminal investigations.

According to a report obtained by The Associated Press, the number of assaults rose from 65 in the 2011 academic year to 80 in 2012. However, nearly half the assaults involved victims who sought confidential medical or other care and did not trigger an investigation. There were 41 assaults reported in 2010.
Granted, we're talking about 80 out of 12,000 young men and women, or 2/3 of 1 percent, which is probably better than most civilian campuses, but still--*sigh*.

During the Golden Age of West Point, 1983-1987, such things weren't unheard of (I myself heard of two cases of pressuring but no actual assaults), and we didn't even have locks on our doors.  Nowadays there are locks on the barracks doors to prevent theft and to prevent sexual assaults.  There's no way around it, that's a specific case of degraded standards from "back in the day"--and it comes as much from the society from which these cadets and midshipmen are drawn as much as from any lack of training or command emphasis.

1 comment:

Mike Thiac said...

Darren

War story from my buddy Randy. At the end of Advanced Camp 1985 (Ft Riley....My God that’s in Kansas!) everyone does a GI party on the barracks towards the end of the cycle. Randy left his watch on his bed and went out for a minute. He returned and it was gone. After looking around he went to the platoon sergeant (An active duty MSG) and explained that some one had taken his watch. The man was not amused, walked in to the cadets and started explaining the facts of life to these future officers:

“You son’s of bitches. You expect me to trust you with my life and the life of my men when you can’t be trusted with a watch of your fellow cadet’s. This s&^% ends now. I gonna walk out for five minutes and if his watch ain’t back, I’m gonna tear up ever foot locker, wall locker, duffle bag and all of you if I need to!” Or words to that effect. I’m going from a memory of 25 years ago.

Suffice to say when the MSG got back there was Randy’s watch...and some money...and a radio....and a few other items found by other cadets during their six weeks at Riley.

Yes, it’s bad you need to lock your stuff up from your future officers.